Newsmaker: Housing market continues to astound | Business
TRAVERSE CITY – The real estate buying frenzy will remain in full swing in northwest Lower Michigan as 2021 ends.
“I put a house on the market at around 11 am yesterday morning,” ReMax Bayshore realtor Matt Dakoske said this month. “I’ve already planned 10 performances in less than 24 hours. The man who will win is cash, above sale price, limited inspections. “
It was a sellers’ market throughout 2021, where home sales were typically made at prices above the asking price. Sales are fast and rapid with no signs of slowing down.
“The only things that don’t sell are things that have serious problems or that are just way too expensive,” said Kim Pontius, CEO of Aspire North Realtors, the area’s real estate association. “Location still matters a lot, but Traverse City doesn’t have what I would call a bad location.”
Median prices paid in 2021 were consistently higher than in 2020 for homes in the area, including Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties.
The average October sales price in the five counties was $ 325,000, according to Aspire North Realtors, up 6.5 percent from $ 305,000 in October 2020. In September, the median price was $ 323,500 in 2021 and $ 270,000 in 2020, up 19.8 percent.
The number of sales fell during those two months, an indication that the stock of available homes has declined. In October, the number of apartments sold in the five-district area decreased from 441 in 2020 to 337 in 2021. In September it decreased from 423 sales in 2020 to 320 in 2021.
“The fluctuation and the new offers just somehow balance each other out,” said Pontius of the number of properties on the market. “A lot of the advertisements this year were vacant land – which has basically evaporated.”
“I think it will take about mid-2022 to stabilize,” he said. “And by that I don’t mean that it will be on the market at will. It will just normalize. “
He added that a return to a normal market is not seen as a bad thing, but simply a return to how the market would have behaved without the pandemic.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that a significant number of home buyers are moving to the Grand Traverse area from elsewhere.
“Some of the numbers we’ve seen show we’re getting people from outside the region,” said Pontius. “But there are a lot of national activities – because a lot of people have rented in recent years and are waiting for an opportunity to enter the market.”
Dakoske agrees that many buyers are from outside the region.
“Much of this comes from east and west coast buyers who see such value in what northern Michigan has to offer compared to the size of the home they may have owned on either coast – and they are fed up with big cities. They are fed up with the weather, whether it’s hot and burning or hurricanes. It’s just that everyone is looking for a new place, ”he said.
The quality of homes for sale in the area seems to meet demand, but internet access has proven to be a stumbling block for some potential buyers.
“COVID has just proven they can do their jobs from home,” Dakoske said of potential buyers considering moving. “And this new proposal to expand bandwidth and Internet access will be enormous.”
Traverse City has long been visible on the national stage, he said, but other nearby communities have also drawn the attention of potential home buyers on the other side in recent years, and they’re experiencing increased real estate pressure.
“Northport was discovered,” said Dakoske. “I’ve been in the real estate business for 45 years. I’ve never seen a real estate market like this in my life. “
Despite the scorching year-end market, Pontius said some relief could be seen as a number of apartment buildings and condos that are under construction are now being completed.